Liquid laundry detergents are popular with the consumers. For a variety of reasons it may be desirable to reduce the foaming of the liquid detergent. In recent years, for instance, front-loading laundry machines have been used. Such front-loading washing machines cannot tolerate a high degree of foaming because a front-loading washing machine depends on rotating articles in and out of the washing liquor reservoir where the surfactant removes the dirt and water brings the dirt to the bulk of washing liquor. If a high foam detergent were used, water would be distributed and become a part of foam. It results in the loss of the capability of removing the dirt to the bulk of washing liquor. In addition, some front-loading washing machines use a pump to spray washing liquor. The foam would damage the pump. Foaming is produced primarily by anionic surfactants, which have high HLB values and are included in laundry compositions to obtain particulate soil removal. Nonionic surfactants, which have a low HLB value about 12 to 13 in order to obtain an optimal detergency, are generally included for oily stain removal and are less foaming. Unfortunately, most liquid laundry detergents include anionic surfactants to obtain best performance on a variety of soils.
The following art describes compositions, in some instances laundry compositions, that may include various, broadly ranging carboxylic acid esters and/or alkoxylated derivatives thereof: Koester et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,384,009), Hees et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,753,606), WO 01/10391, WO 96/23049, WO 94/13618, Miyajima et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,146), JP 9078092, JP 9104895, JP 8157897, JP 8209193 and JP 3410880.